A 5.2 pJ/pulse impulse radio pulse generator in 90 nm CMOS

A low-power impulse radio (IR) ultra wideband (UWB) pulse generator (PG) is presented. It uses digital gate-delay for timing achieving good power efficiency and acceptable spectral filling. The circuit is scalable in both bandwidth and center frequency. Both energy consumption and chip area are reduced compared to most conventional higher order Gaussian PGs. The PG is realized in a TSMC 90 nm CMOS process. Measurements show the energy consumption from a 1.2 V to be 5.2 pj/pulse for a 200 MHz pulse repetition frequency (PRF). The core area is 0.0015 mm² (38 μm × 40 μm). Lastly, a dynamic pre-charge (DPC) scheme is proposed to eliminate the stand- by current and make the PG favourable for low-data-rate applications.